1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the storage and dissemination of information in an electronic format. More particularly, the invention relates to the dissemination of such information based on scarcity and authenticity.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Paper trading cards have been popular for over 100 years. Over the course of several generations, children and adults have enthusiastically collected and traded sports cards. Over the last 15 to 20 years the content of trading cards has expanded to include cartoon characters (e.g. The Lion King), fantasy figures (e.g. Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons), role playing games, wildlife, and even famous criminals.
Very few children's activities have had the generation-after-generation acceptance and popularity of trading cards. Throughout their history, the patterns of use and technology of trading cards have remained constant. Cards have been printed in color on cardboard, serially numbered and sold in retail stores, and more recently in specialty trading card stores. Trading card collecting magazines are published worldwide and trading card conventions are held in all major US cities. Paper cards are even traded over the Internet.
The fundamental appeal of trading and collecting scarce but inexpensive trading cards is an international phenomenon. Trading cards are very popular in Japan and in Europe, and although they contain content of local interest, the ways they are sold, collected, and traded are very similar to the United States.
Children buy cards and attempt to collect a complete series of a particular type of card. They trade with their friends to fill gaps in a card series and augment their collections. Within the last 5-10 years, trading card games have emerged (such as Magic-The Gathering) that combine the game play of traditional card games with the activity of trading card collecting. In existing trading card games, the completeness of your card collection gives you advantages in the game against other players.
In parallel with this strong continuing consumer interest in trading cards, several trends have recently become apparent in consumer multimedia technology:
Consumer purchases of multimedia equipped personal computers and advanced video game systems have been escalating rapidly. The multimedia computer is poised to take its place as the heir to the video game and VCR as a major focal point of family leisure. At the same time, video game systems are growing in capabilities and becoming almost computer-like in their functionality as they add stereo sound capabilities, CD-ROM drives, and writable data storage. PA1 The number of subscribers to consumer on-line services is growing rapidly. Consumers are becoming educated and familiar with the concept of "cyberspace" where distance is not a factor in sharing E-mail and other digital data with fellow subscribers. PA1 Data compression technology is becoming affordable and accessible to consumers. Data compression techniques are becoming common features of consumer media and computer products. PA1 The capacity of digital storage media is increasing as prices fall. Floppy discs, optical storage, and hard drives are all holding more data at lower and lower cost. PA1 A generation of electronically-literate children is coming of age. Today's children in the trading card age range (Le. 8-14 years of age) are familiar and comfortable with electronic environments. They've grown up in a world of sophisticated electronic special effects in movies, complex video games which challenge their game playing skills and more recently, multimedia computers with modems and CD-ROM drives. PA1 a) ETC Header Identification, i.e. an ASCII string which uniquely identifies the ETC and a lock and key mechanism to limit access and impose password protection if desired; PA1 b) ETC Graphic Identification, such as audio visual logo, copyright notice, company information; PA1 c) Multimedia Data, such as animation, video, pictures, sounds, text; PA1 d) Pointers to external data and programs embedded in scripts which trigger the display of external media or run external applications; PA1 e) Utility Programs, such as copy protection, printing, telecommunications protocols, self destruction (erasing) routines; PA1 f) Applications, including incomplete linkable code segments, games, puzzles, and utilities; and PA1 g) User Writable Area for personalization, ASCII messages, voice recording, score keeping.
Although these trends may seem loosely related, they converge in a potential product opportunity to create systems for disassociated consumer multimedia, i.e. multimedia products that allow consumers to browse, create, collect, and exchange disassociated pieces of multimedia data. Almost all multimedia software is published today as large, monolithic collections of data that can only be browsed by the consumer--much like the analog publishing model of books and movies.
The trends mentioned above create the potential for electronically literate consumers to take advantage of data compression and affordable high-density storage to create, collect, and exchange disassociated pieces of multimedia information using their multimedia personal computers and video game systems. Collecting and exchanging can occur on physical media such as high fdensity floppy discs or on on-line systems. Early manifestations of this opportunity are seen today in electronic mail and children's electronic paint programs which allow graphics to be created on screen by consumers.
Various alternative format greeting cards and related systems are known in the art. See, for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,589, Collectible Promotional Card, which is a method of printing a photographic image on the laminate; U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,651, Trading Cards and Method of Concealing and Revealing Information, which discloses trading cards that are interactive with the user by concealing under a secondary show under a coating, i.e. it is a form of a scratch card; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,472, Computer Controlled Machine For Vending Personalized Products Or The Like, provides an electronic vending machine that allows one to compose a greeting card, and then print it on the spot, i.e. it is a machine for vending greeting cards or personalized customized products at the point of sale. Thus, the '472 patent provides a series of electronic forms from which one can select a desired greeting card format and enter personalization information into the form.
Other art that provides a background for the invention includes: U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,229, Electronic Baseball Card, discloses a calculator that stores sports information; U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,029, Method and Apparatus for Manufacturing and Vending Social Expression Cards, discloses a system for point-of-sale card manufacturing and vending; U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,151, Scale Model Game, discloses a game board. U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,043, Cryptographic Guessing Game, discloses a puzzle game which one of several players can play, and that includes cyphertext and indicia, where the cyphertext is an encrypted message that may include hidden information; U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,849, Computer Image Production and System Utilizing First and Second Networks for Separately Transferring Control Information and Digital Image Data, discloses a computer imaging system used to produce animation.
Additionally of interest are related U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,203, Computer Card, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,727 Computer Card. The '203 patent discloses a greeting card created, and readable, by a digital computer, and that requires a magnetic medium means, such as a magnetic card or magnetic disk, for storing a plurality of messages and a plurality of audio selections. The message can be a visual message that is displayed in connection with the reproduction of audio information. The message must include a control file that is used to configure the source computer. Thus, the '203 patent discloses a multimedia format in which audio and video are linked with a run time module and stored on a magnetic medium for use in a computer system.
The '727 patent discloses a system for processing and supervising a plurality of composite intercourse and social communication selections of a product. The "supervising" element of the '727 disclosure is directed to perception by the recipient of the continuous generation of a design, message, and audio output under the supervision of the computer operating system to provide a plurality of multi-media outputs in synchronization, rather than one at a time. The greeting card generated is used to communicate a personal message to another being in a social atmosphere that consists of a preprinted picture and a preprinted message, with an audio portion such as a musical selection added.
The entire interpersonal social communication is stored on a fixed medium in one location. A computer greeting card thus generated can be used at that location as is and modified to improvise a user-created message of a special emotional meaning between the user and the recipient of the greeting card. If the recipient is at a remote location, the user may mail the fixed medium to the recipient. The recipient then inserts the interpersonal social communication into a computer, and the computer produces a synchronized audio/visual presentation.